Washington Monthly Ranks Pacific University High Among its Peers

Washington Monthly magazine, a non-profit publication based in the nation's capital, has ranked Pacific University 13th in the nation in the "master's universities" category.

The publication rates schools "based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students); research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs); and service (encouraging students to give something back to their country)."

The magazine classified each institution in one of the following categories: liberal arts colleges, national universities, master's universities and baccalaureate colleges.

"To establish the set of colleges included in the rankings, we started with the 1,761 colleges that are listed in the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System as having a Carnegie basic classification of research, master’s, baccalaureate, and baccalaureate/associate’s colleges and are not exclusively graduate schools," Washington Monthly editors said.

Pacific, a three-time member of the President's Community Service Honor Roll, had the eighth-highest amount of community service and participation hours, relative to school size, of the 684 master's universities institutions ranked by Washington Monthly.

The university also ranked 14th among master's institutions in the percentage of bachelor's degree graduates who go on to earn a doctorate or other terminal degree.

"Our rankings aim to identify institutions that are acting on behalf of the true public interest," the editors said.